All Blacks start new era under Dave Rennie with a world of optimism - and a tricky road ahead
Sunday, 28 June 2026
What: Nations Championship, round 1, All Blacks v France. Where: One NZ Stadium, Christchurch. When: 7.10pm Saturday, Sky Sport 1.
The eyes of the rugby world will be on the All Blacks as they kick off the inaugural Nations Championship tournament under new management.
The All Blacks-France test in Christchurch will mark the start of a new competition that administrators believe will breathe new life - and money - into the existing calendar.
Optimism also abounds about Dave Rennie’s All Blacks, with the promise of an attacking brand of rugby after Scott Robertson’s difficult two years in charge.
Rennie is clearly capable, winning the Japan Rugby League One title this year while planning for the test season.
He is well deserving of the positivity that is accompanying his honeymoon period.
But he would not have the job if New Zealand Rugby felt the All Blacks were on track, and the return of high-performance director Don Tricker is further evidence of anxiety about the All Blacks’ trajectory.
The expectations on the All Blacks have not changed but the world has, and Rennie’s first All Blacks squad showed that a return to the summit of world rugby could be challenging.
It is not so different to squads selected by Robertson, while injuries to Tamaiti Williams, Scott Barrett and Fabian Holland will bite.
France, meanwhile, will arrive in New Zealand as horribly underrated. Antoine Dupont is missing but Les Bleus will be built around Bordeaux-Begles, the back-to-back Champions Cup winners.
Fabien Galthie’s side also have a game under their belts, beating a decent-looking England team 35-19 last weekend (George Ford, Tom Curry and Marcus Smith all started for England).
There is also a question of how much can Rennie and his new coaching team achieve in the 10 days before the test against France on Saturday?
Not a lot, and already there is talk from Rennie about how important the South Africa tour will be in terms of really getting the team on the same page.
Nor has Super Rugby Pacific prepared his players particularly well for the added rigours of test rugby, particularly the blowouts in the finals series that meant every game was effectively over as a contest at halftime or with about 20 minutes to go.
Throw in the ongoing doubts about the All Blacks No 6 and No 13 jerseys, and the depth at halfback behind Cam Roigard, and the test against France should be reframed as a success if the All Black win, regardless of the performance.
Older heads such as senior assistant Neil Barnes and selectors Graham Henry will likely see it that way, with the worldly Barnes telling The Post last week that Wellington test opponents Italy deserved the “utmost respect”, never mind Six Nations champions France.
They will be right, too, because hard-won experience brings with it the ability to see the danger signs up ahead.
None of this changes the longer-term likelihood of Rennie implementing a well-defined game plan that involves bravery, ambition and the willingness to run with the ball.
But the exacting requirements on players that come with that style of play take time to achieve, and test opponents won’t miss the sheer number of one-on-one tackles that the four New Zealand teams were guilty of in the Super Rugby semifinals.
So, how long do rebuilds take? More than 10 days. Rassie Erasmus’ first test in charge of the Springboks was a 22-20 loss to Wales with an experimental team in 2018, and he finished that year with seven wins and seven losses.
That would be deemed as disastrous for Rennie, but he has a lot of work ahead and may need a degree of patience from a famously impatient public as he goes about it.